Saturday, March 11
Though now not at its brightest, Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) stays a small-telescope goal at round magnitude 9 within the night sky. It flies excessive (40°) above the southwestern horizon an hour after sundown, and tonight lies inside ½° of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1637 in Eridanus the River.
The 2 are positioned close to 4th-magnitude Mu (μ) and Nu (ν) Eridani within the constellation’s northeastern area. Tonight, Comet ZTF lies about 1° due west of Mu and 0.5° due south of NGC 1637. The galaxy is the fainter fuzzball, coming in at eleventh magnitude and spanning about 3′ throughout its (barely) longer axis. In the meantime, ZTF could seem largely spherical, however with a barely sharper southern edge and a stubby, broad tail to the north. Are you able to pick these delicate options?
Benefit from the pair all night, although earlier is best — because the evening wears on, they’ll sink into the turbulent air close to the horizon across the identical time because the gibbous Moon begins to rise.
Dawn: 6:18 A.M.
Sundown: 6:02 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:33 P.M.
Moonset: 8:18 A.M.
Moon Part: Waning gibbous (83%)
Sunday, March 12
Daylight saving time begins for these areas that observe it this morning at 2 A.M. At the moment, clocks will “spring ahead” to three A.M., which means the Solar will seem to rise and set an hour later, giving us extra daylight later within the day.
The binocular planet Uranus (magnitude 5.8) is roughly 40° excessive within the west an hour after sundown tonight. It presently sits simply over 1° north-northeast of magnitude 5.5 Sigma (σ) Arietis. Showing as a “flat” blue-gray star, Uranus’ diameter stretches simply 3″.
Far more readily seen are the naked-eye planets Venus (20° excessive an hour after sundown and magnitude –4) and Jupiter (10° excessive an hour after sundown and magnitude –2.1). Following their early March conjunction, the 2 planets are actually separated by practically 11°. Venus is now roughly 21° from Uranus — however that’s going to vary. Over the following two weeks, the brightest planet within the sky will appear to hurry upward evening by evening, approaching Uranus’ location, which against this received’t seem to vary a lot in any respect. The 2 planets will meet in a conjunction on the final day of the month.
Dawn: 7:16 A.M.
Sundown: 7:04 P.M.
Moonrise: —
Moonset: 9:42 A.M.
Moon Part: Waning gibbous (75%)
